Hayley Williams, the charismatic young lead singer in the Tennessee-bred pop-punk band Paramore, has been a rock star for the past six years. But when it comes to her latest sources of musical inspiration, she cites artists whose heydays predate her birth.

“As a 24-year-old, I’m discovering (deceased Queen singer) Freddie Mercury for first time,” said Williams, who performs here Wednesday, Oct. 23, with Paramore at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena. “I’m looking at him and how he carried himself, on stage and off, and thinking: ‘That’s someone who really pushed his artistry to the limit.’ I don’t feel I’m nearly that talented. But I love to think that I could be, if I wanted to be.

“I also have this real connection with Blondie, for some reason, and that’s only grown. I have always liked Blondie, but I’m absolutely enamored now with their guitarist and the way Debbie Harry sings in different characters’ voices.”

Asked if she is inspired by any new artists, Williams demurred.

“I’m rarely inspired in those types of ways by new music,” she said from her home in Nashville. “It’s usually older artists that I’m discovering. Maybe it’s because it’s a mystery to me, because a lot of them are not around. I’ve never seen Blondie play (live). If I did, I’d learn a million things, because they’ve been places I haven’t.

“With newer artists, I wonder: ‘How much of the music scene have they seen that I haven’t?’ I care about the artistry. I want to know: ‘What made Queen do what Queen did?’ ‘What made (English punk and post-punk singer) Siouxie Sioux sing the way she did, and why was the tone of her voice so thick and musical?’ Those things are what inspire me. So, when I go to sing, I think about those artists, not artists Paramore is competing with on the (sales) charts today.”

Williams learned a lot, if not a million things, when two of Paramore’s founding members — brothers Zac and Josh Farro — quit the band in 2010. This led to a very public feud about their reasons for leaving, along with charges that Williams and her managers called all the shots.

"It was very schizophrenic," she recalled. "There were days I felt very low and doubtful, and (Paramore guitarist) Taylor (York) would pick me up off the ground. And then there were days where he felt we were done, and I picked him up., That's the good thing about being in a band with friends.

"You have to work hard for healthy relationships, because it's never easy. We had to learn how to be there for each other and it was great a exercise for the future and for being open-minded for the future. I kind of made peace with the fact that that (2007's) 'Riot!' may have been our best album. But I was determined to make a better album than I ever had before. Now that I'm sitting here, a year after (completing the chart-topping 'Paramore'), it's like: 'Man, of course we'd make the best album we ever made!' And I can't believe I ever doubted it. We worked really hard and are really big fans of what we do. We believe in it and feel the people who support us are as big a part of it as we are."

In hindsight, did the resulting turmoil prove cathartic when making the band’s latest (and most musically accomplished) album, “Paramore”?

“Looking back on it now, I’m so happy that there is that sort of feeling that we were in a valley and we climbed to the mountaintop,” Williams replied. “I’m thankful for the whole experience. Losing friends, losing band members, at the end of the day, has made us better friends and better and stronger people. Who knows? In three years, we might face something else.”

Earlier this year, Paramore lost a key member of its touring lineup, San Diego drum wiz Ilan Rubin, 25. He is featured on the chart-topping “Paramore,” the band’s fourth and newest album, and performed a series of concerts with Paramore before he rejoined his previous band, Nine Inch Nails, this spring for a new album and still-ongoing tour.

“Ilan is not only one of my favorite drummers in the world, but one of my favorite people," Williams said. "I was so nervous about replacing him. We’d love for Ilan to come back anytime he wants, but we’re happy to have found Miles."

That would be Miles McPherson, no relation to the identically named founder and pastor of San Diego’s The Rock Church. But McPherson's path in (or, rather, out of) Paramore has been a little bumpy of late.

In August, McPherson was badly injured in a golf cart accident in which he suffered broken bones and severe burns from leaked battery acid. ﻿(Aaron Gillespie, the drummer in The Almost, is now subbing for McPherson on Paramore's fall tour.

“When I heard Miles was in intensive care, my heart stopped. I thought he’d been shot or in a car accident," Williams recalled. "Then I heard he was OK and had been in a golf cart accident. It became cartoon-y. How in the hell did this happen to Miles, of all people? So I’d been acting like it’s not big deal.

"Then I saw Miles and my heart jumped, because he was pretty beat up. But he has an awesome family and we’re doing everything we can to help him. He’s one of the toughest dudes I’ve ever met. If I were him, I wouldn’t even be walking around (after the accident).”

One of the key reasons Paramore has struck such a resounding chord with its audience is Williams ability to address personal matters with a universal touch, and vice versa, in her song lyrics. Her main focus tends to be existential angst and matters of the heart, both of which she approached in a direct, no-nonsense manner.

Asked where she draws the line to avoid being too revealing, Williams was quick to set he record straight.

'I don't draw any lines," she stressed. "I think what I say is what I mean. If I ever wanted to be more direct, I guess I would be. But I don't know how I could possibly be any more direct. I just write things. Some things fall out of me simply, and others I make more poetic.

"I think everyone has those two sides to them. Everyone wants to hear exactly what they feel (in a song). And those same people might turn around and want something artful and a little more twisted. I only do it to the extent I feel comfortable...

"I want people to remember how they felt when they listened to our music and how I hopefully made people feel they can transcend whatever situation they are in right now. I can't ever tell if these (goals) are too ambitious or not. I just want to make music that moves people and that connects people to each other and more deeply to themselves. Because the music I listen to -- and what I get out of my favorite bands -- makes me feel like a bigger and better person. When I hear music like that, it reaches all the way down into my gut.

"It's weird. We're a band that enjoys writing writing pop songs.But just because we come from one world doesn't mean we're afraid or writing songs that (touch) people). We want to put on a big show and have a lot of songs to sing along to. But, at the end of the day, that (meaningful, uplifting songs) are what I want to do."